Yogi first CM to visit 75 districts in 16 months, now wants results

Yogi Adityanath became the first UP chief minister to cover all 75 districts of the state in just 16 months as he flew from Etah to Hathras on Monday. The exercise is part of his party’s outreach initiative ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Adityanath interacted with the district magistrates and senior superintendents of police of all the 75 districts and had decided on his tours immediately afterwards to gather a “first hand feel” of the administrative functioning across the state.(HT Photo)

Yogi Adityanath became the first UP chief minister to cover all 75 districts of the state in just 16 months as he flew from Etah to Hathras on Monday. The exercise is part of his party’s outreach initiative ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Barely a day before, he had sent out a terse message to the bureaucracy on Sunday while visiting Farrukhabad, the 73rd district in his itinerary.

The government will now also keep a watch on whether the number of complainants travelling to Lucknow from across the state dipped, stayed constant or increased. “Accountability will be fixed, for sure,” an official considered close to the chief minister said.

With general elections less than a year away, Adityanath’s team is drawing up a list of priorities and problem areas. As if on cue, chief secretary Anup Chandra Pandey held meetings and instructed officials to ensure that the benefits of various schemes reached those for whom they were intended.

Mrityunjay Kumar, the chief minister’s advisor, confirmed that Adityanath now has a better understanding of the state’s problems after having done his homework, first by sitting through department presentations well past midnight soon after taking over and then following it up with tours across the state in record time.

“It’s going to be action time. The delivery of government schemes and reaching the unreached will be the first priority,” he said.

On August 2 last year, Adityanath interacted with the district magistrates and senior superintendents of police of all the 75 districts and had decided on his tours immediately afterwards to gather a “first hand feel” of the administrative functioning across the state.

His tours include superstition-shattering visits to Noida and a night stay at the Agra circuit house to break a jinx. Both the Noida visit and the night stay at the Agra circuit house were avoided by successive UP CMs for fear of losing power.

However, leader of opposition Ram Gobind Chaudhary described Adityanath’s trips as futile.

“The chief minister doesn’t have a grip on the bureaucracy and these trips have done little to improve matters,” he said.